Waist circumference vs body mass index in association with cardiorespiratory fitness in healthy men and women: a cross sectional analysis of 403 subjects

Table 1 Characteristics (means ± SD) of 403 men and women in the study

Variable	Women	Men	p^b
	N = 181	N = 222
Age (years)	50.1 ± 8.7	49.7 ± 8.9	0.7
BMI (kg/m²)	25.5 ± 4.6	27.8 ± 3.7	<0.001
Waist circumference (cm)	84.3 ± 10.4	94.1 ± 9.7	<0.001
Hours of training per week	2.5 ± 3.1	2.5 ± 2.6	0.8
Weekly caloric expenditure on physical activity (kcal)	789.3 ± 820.1	1134.1 ± 1191.3	0.014
Cardiorespiratory fitness: VO₂max (ml/kg/min)	39.2 ± 9.7	41.6 ± 8.7	0.007
Smoking (%)	18 ± 4	18 ± 4	0.9

Data are mean ± SD.
Abbreviations: BMI = Body Mass Index.
p values are for differences in the variables between women and men.
The statistical analyses performed: to compare the differences between men and woman for continuous variables t tests for independence groups were performed, for continuous variables that do not distribute normally the Mann–Whitney tests were performed and for the dichotomous variable smoking the Chi square test was performed.

ISSN: 1475-2891